During her recent visit to France, we caught up with Sweden's minister for EU affairs, Jessica Rosencrantz. We discuss the energy crunch and what it means for Europe's competitiveness; Sweden's and the EU's relationship with Ukraine; and Sweden's dynamic tech and innovation scene. We start with the energy crisis hitting Europe as a result of the war in the Middle East. The Swedish government has stated that fuel rationing might be an option at some point. Rosencrantz says that, in Sweden, "we are putting in place measures to dampen the effects of the spikes in prices by reducing the tax on electricity, for example." She goes on: "It is really important to help consumers and businesses now. But that shouldn't take the focus away from what we need to do in the long run (at the EU level). We need to keep our eyes on the prize, and that is to boost competitiveness in general through simplification. Through fulfilling the single market. And of course, what's going on now really shows that being dependent on fossil fuels from the Middle East or from Russia; that's a bad strategy. It's bad for climate. It's bad for the economy. And it's bad for security." Sweden is one of the EU's most committed providers of economic and military aid to Ukraine, and we discuss the new situation following the ouster of Viktor Orban in the Hungarian election. She notes that the unblocking of the EU's €90 billion loan to Ukraine "was, of course, an important step. So I'm very glad about the new position from Hungary on this. It's a crucial step, but it's not enough. Sweden has a two-point plan, which is quite simple: more support to Ukraine and more pressure on Russia." On Ukraine's prospects for joining the EU, Rosencrantz says: "Ukraine belongs in the European family. But we say also from the Swedish point of view that it's a merit-based approach. Any candidate country has to do the reforms. But we from the EU, we shouldn't be the ones blocking. It should be about the reform pace in Ukraine. And they're doing a lot of reforms. We should be able to open up negotiations and start the process. And here I'm hoping, of course, that Hungary will follow this line as well." We turn to the Swedish "tech boom", one of Rosencrantz's main areas of interest. "I'm very proud of the Swedish tech scene," she says. "We are ranked number one in innovation in the EU. Number two in the world, actually. In Sweden, it's described as a hobby to invest in stocks and funds. I also think we from Sweden could export our model to the rest of Europe when it comes to capital markets. But of course we also need simplification, we need to reduce bureaucracy, which is something we're all talking about in Europe. But we need to go from just words to concrete action. We're doing it with all these different omnibus packages, but we need more of those. And the Swedish government has been quite active in, for example, the digital omnibus on artificial intelligence, which is important for creating really good conditions for entrepreneurs and tech companies to scale up, but also to stay in Europe." Programme prepared by Agnès Le Cossec, Oihana Almandoz, Isabelle Romero, Perrine Desplats and Aline Bottin
